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Ice hockey in the Lower Hudson Valley with Harold Gutmann

Archive for February, 2009

Rye and Pelham will meet again

February
28

There was no shocker in the Division II semifinals today. In a rematch of last year’s final, Pelham and Rye will meet again tomorrow at West Point. Pelham beat Ossining 3-1 and Rye beat Brewster 9-0.

Marc Flory scored twice — tying him with Johnny Marshall, who had 50 goals in the ‘87-’88 season, for most goals in a season — and Adrian Rivera scored his third goal of the season to break a 1-1 tie with 1:46 left in the second period. Gavin Lambdin, a game-time decision because of a stomach flu, made 19 saves.

Joseph Giordano scored with 5:07 left in the first period to give Ossining a 1-0 lead, and Joe Riley made 15 saves.

Earlier today, Paul Mundinger had three goals and two assists, Taka Katsuta and Ellis Beber scored twice and Matt Benincasa made 19 saves for the Garnets.

So here’s tomorrow’s tentative schedule:

Division I: No. 1 Mamaroneck vs. No. 3 White Plains, 4 p.m.

Division II: No. 1 Rye vs. No. 2 Pelham, 6:30 p.m.

I say tentative because there’s supposed to be a snowstorm coming in tomorrow night. I spoke with chairman John Orlando at the Pelham game, and he laid out a number of contingency plans. Section 1 has ice booked at Hommocks and Playland Tuesday night at 8 in case games can’t be played at West Point, though it’s also possible that the games will still be played at Tate, just later in the week (possibly Tuesday or Wednesday). 

It’s also possible, if only one school decides to cancel (and it’s up to the schools, not Orlando), that one game will be played Sunday and the other game will be played Tuesday.

In any case, I will post all weather-related updates here as soon as I get them, so stay tuned. Right now our plan is still to broadcast both games over the internet tomorrow in case anyone can’t make it, and I plan on posting the previews early tomorrow morning.

Posted by Harold Gutmann on Saturday, February 28th, 2009 at 9:01 pm | del.icio.us Digg
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Division II semifinals

February
28

Just like in Division I, this round is where the No. 1 seed really comes in handy. I see Rye handling Brewster, but Ossining giving Pelham all kinds of problems. What do you think?

No. 1 Rye (13-10) vs. No. 4 Brewster (10-12-2), 11:45 a.m. at Playland: Brewster is 6-4-1 after a tough start, which includes some nice wins over League 2 competition, and is now in the semifinals for the first time in seven years. But they haven’t faced a team like Rye yet. Brewster’s wins this year were RTH, Carmel, Mt. P, Yorktown (twice), ETB, and Scarsdale (twice). What do they all have in common? None of them won a playoff game. Brewster gets its third-leading scorer back from suspension to complement the high-powered duo of Mike Miller and Ian Fleming, and I think that’ll be enough to get something past goalie Matt Benincasa. But Brewster gave up a lot of odd-man rushes against Yorktown, and that will prove fatal against the Garnets. Rye gets scoring from all three lines and gets within one game of a third straight title. Rye 4-1.

No. 2 Pelham (15-10) vs. No. 6 Ossining (20-2-2), 5 p.m. at Ice Hutch: Ossining hasn’t given up more than three goals all year — not to Mamaroneck, Sleepy Hollow/Irvington, Somers/North Salem, Pawling, New Rochelle, etc.. Pelham has scored 27 goals in its last four games, which includes five each against DI semifinalists Mahopac and White Plains. Within this great offense-defense matchup is an individual battle between Marc Flory, who continued his unbelievable run with a season-high five goals against Somers/North Salem (he now has six straight multi-goal games), and Scott Miele, one of the section’s top defensemen who shut down Joe Marasco when I saw the team play Somers/North Salem at WSA. I think Ossining’s close loss to Mamaroneck should give them confidence, and they are riding high after reaching the semifinals for the first time in seven years, but the Pelham seniors are on a mission to get back to Glens Falls and Ossining isn’t stopping them. Pelham 3-2.

Posted by Harold Gutmann on Saturday, February 28th, 2009 at 9:31 am | del.icio.us Digg
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Dubset going to West Point

February
28

White Plains will be going for its first sectional championship in 30 years on Sunday, thanks to nine unanswered goals against two of the top 5 teams in the state. The Tigers shut out Suffern for the second straight time, winning 3-0 at Sport-O, after scoring six straight to beat Clarkstown North 6-4 on Wednesday.

Mike Pavarini was the star of the game, making 35 saves (22 in the third period), but of course it was a team effort. The first line of Aaron Klimchuk, Dan Broderick and Steve McCarrick created both goals (defenseman Ryan McGee added an empty netter), the second line kept up the pressure and the defense of McGee, Harrison McCandless and Jack Peeples stood strong.

It was White Plains’ first-ever win against Suffern at Sport-O (and just its second win against Suffern in the program’s 40-year history, after a 4-0 win at Ebersole three weeks ago). The Tigers forechecked hard, got the puck deep, made smart passes, cycled the puck, and got in front of the net. Plus their goalie stood on his head.

My story has reaction from Pavarini, McCandless and coach Howie Rubenstein. It also has some facts about Klimchuk, who scored the winner with three minutes left in the second period — he missed the quarterfinal game with food poisoning, he came over from RCDS as a defenseman this year, he was one of three juniors who missed their junior prom last night (along with McGee and Jeremy Lindh), and perhaps most interesting of all, he wore No. 10 last night instead of the usual No. 27 because assistant coach Mark Sanchez, who wore No. 27 for the Tigers, is taking that uniform with him when he ships out to Iraq soon (he’s in the Army Reserves). 

I asked Rubenstein about what’s different this year: “Our defense is a lot better this year, and we play a little different system. We get pucks deep, we’re not relying on our speed to get the puck in all the time. We just want to chip it in and make the other team work.”

Their opponent Sunday at 4 p.m. will be the Tigers from Mamaroneck (fast fact — what’s a group of Tigers called? Click here for the answer.) Mamaroneck scored six straight to beat Mahopac 6-1. Brett Jackson had three goals and two assists, including a goal 12 seconds after Mahopac scored to go up 1-0. Also, senior Sean Hagan (two assists) set the school record for assists by a defenseman (144). Dan Marra was at Hommocks for that one.

Mahopac was still within 3-1 and had a 5-on-3 to start the third period, but the Tigers killed that off. Mamaroneck also scored six unanswered to beat North Rockland 7-2 in the quarterfinals. 

I’ll post a finals preview after the Division II semis tomorrow, but I did want to look back for a second and congratulate Mahopac and Suffern for making it this far. The Indians actually started 4-11 before coming up with some big wins against teams like Pelham and White Plains, and of course they got past a really tough Lakeland/Panas team in overtime to make it back to the sectional semifinals. With only three seniors graduating, the future looks bright for next year. Meanwhile, the Mounties lost five starters off last year’s incredible team — the word “rebuilding” was even thrown around a little bit — but a host of newcomers, led by goalie Paul Gabriel, really took advantage of their opportunities and Suffern was 30 seconds away against Mamaroneck from winning another League 1 title. 

I’ll be back early tomorrow with a look at the Division II semifinal matchups. And the results from the latest poll are in — 81 out of 132 thought the Section 1 finals should be at Tate Rink.

Posted by Harold Gutmann on Saturday, February 28th, 2009 at 1:25 am | del.icio.us Digg
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White Plains stuns Suffern

February
27

Third-seeded White Plains held on for a 3-0 win over second-seeded Suffern tonight in the Section 1 Division I semifinals at Sport-O-Rama in Monsey.

The Tigers will now play top-seeded Mamaroneck in the final on Sunday at 4 p.m. at West Point.

Mike Pavarini enjoyed a stellar outing in goal for White Plains, making 35 saves. 

The Tigers took a 1-0 lead on a goal by Aaron Klimchuk with three minutes left in the period, assisted by Steve McCarick and Dan Broderick.

Broderick then scored 36 seconds into third period. Ryan McGee added an empty net goal.

Posted by Harold Gutmann on Friday, February 27th, 2009 at 9:06 pm | del.icio.us Digg
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Harold GutmannHarold Gutmann Harold Gutmann joined The Journal News in 2002 after graduating from Duke University. He currently focuses on high school sports - he has covered state championship games in 10 different sports - and local events like the U.S. Open and the New York City Marathon. He gets on his bicycle every day and enjoys exploring as much of New York City as possible, especially its jazz and comedy clubs. A native of Chevy Chase, Md., Gutmann currently lives with his wife in Queens.READ MORE
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